On Stubbed Toes and Mortal Wounds
by Misura
Summary: Kaistern stubs his toe. Tetheus indulges in some wishful thinking. [KaisternTetheus]


On stubbed toes and mortal wounds

x

Warnings/notes: Kai-stern/Tetheus (established), slightly silly/weird, ooc, drabble-ish snippet.

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Knights.

written at 16th June 2005, by Misura, for a request made by Cairnsy in the livejournal-community ficondemand (on occasion of the Junetide).

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Amazingly enough, when Tetheus proposed that Kai-stern would share his office, during the weeks it would take to restore Kai-stern's office to its former state after Rath had been a little too ardent in protecting Kai-stern against a wasp (it had, he claimed later, been a -demonic- wasp, and Tetheus was just -picking- on him because he was -jealous-), Alfeegi had merely nodded, before asking Tetheus if he might know if Kai-stern might know of any weak, nearby demons for Rath to kill, so that he'd be out of the Castle for a while.

"Ouch."

Thus, Kai-stern had been installed in a small corner of Tetheus' office -because Alfeegi claimed that Kai-stern hardly deserved -half- of Tetheus' office, seeing as how it was obviously -his- fault that Alfeegi'd have to adapt his budget to cover the expenses of restoring Kai-stern's own office. Tetheus prudently hadn't argued, knowing quite well that most of Kai-stern's work consisted of writing letters to the people whose names he kept in a small, blue book that never left the secret pocket of whatever jacket Kai-stern happened to be wearing at the time, unless it was to write in a new name, or cross out someone who'd died.

"I said: ouch."

Tetheus looked up from his report to see Kai-stern glare accusingly at the right corner of his desk, so obviously not aware of Tetheus' looking at him that Tetheus felt intensely scrutinized. He knew Kai-stern, after all.

"Are you all right?"

He should at least have -tried- to sound annoyed, really. There were still dozens of reports he needed to read, even if Kai-stern might have finished his work for today already -which wasn't at all sure, but nevertheless a possibility Tetheus was willing to consider.

"Yes, I'm perfectly all right," Kai-stern replied sarcastically. "That's why I can hardly walk right now."

Tetheus refrained from commenting that, really, stubbing one's toe was hardly the type of injury that justified such a reaction or such an expression as Kai-stern displayed at the moment.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" Tetheus asked politely, bookmarking the report he was currently reading. The odds were that he'd have lost all notion of what it had been about by the time he'd get around to starting on it again, but, well, you never knew.

"You could help me get to my bedroom," Kai-stern proposed. His gaze darted over to a clock that indicated it was nine in the evening, a little earlier than Tetheus'd normally consider a proper time to call it a day. "I don't think I could make it on my own."

Tetheus sighed and rose.

He supposed he could say that Kai-stern was acting like a child, demanding to be coddled any time he stubbed his toe -on purpose, even, just to have an excuse to ask for Tetheus' attention. He supposed that perhaps, he shouldn't encourage Kai-stern by going along with it, by accepting Kai-stern's act and allowing himself to be manipulated into abandoning his work early.

Still, Tetheus remembered too many other moments, when Kai-stern had really barely been able to remain on his feet, when Tetheus had feared for the Blue Dragon Officer's life, and his worries had been waved away, his help refused.

It might have seemed a bit strange to outsiders, perhaps, that Kai-stern would only agree to being fussed over -would, in fact, almost -insist- on being fussed over- for small, unimportant injuries that hardly deserved the word. To Tetheus, it almost made sense though.

Almost.

(One day, Tetheus hoped he'd have earned enough of Kai-stern's trust to be allowed to attend to him in the case of a serious injury, but until that moment, he was content with taking whatever Kai-stern was willing to offer him.)

(One day, Tetheus also hoped, he'd have the courage to stub his toe and let Kai-stern fuss over him.)

OWARI


End file.
